End-to-end anastomosis is a surgical procedure for connecting an end of one hollow organ to an end of another hollow organ. End-to-end anastomosis is commonly performed on vascular and/or visceral tissue. Microvascular anastomosis is generally performed to make ends of blood vessels in the course of, for example, reattaching severed body parts and/or transplanting organs. Microvascular anastomosis is generally performed by hand under a microscope, and is tedious and painstaking work. As a result, it can take many hours to complete just the microvascular anastomosis required to reconnect a severed body part or transplant an organ.
In such surgical procedures, speed of performing the operation can become extremely critical. For example, in transplant surgery, it is very important to reconnect the supply of blood to the transplanted organ as soon as possible in order to minimize damage to the organ. Such blood vessels are now normally anastomosed end-to-end or end-to-side by suturing techniques. Such suture anastomosis procedures generally take the skilled surgeon anywhere from ten to twenty minutes to complete for each anastomosis and for many organs a number of such connections are required.
At the present, there are no known anastomosis stapling or fastener securing devices or techniques for the vascular system which are truly failsafe and foolproof. It is thus a principal object of the present invention to provide such a full proof surgical stapler for automated hollow organ anastomosis which permits full and unobstructed access to the surgical field and provides insured or guaranteed stapling of the hollow organ ends without misfire of any one of the staples. The anastomosis stapler of the present invention accordingly provides ease of use, accessibility to the surgical site, consistency and dependability in operation, all in less time possible with prior art techniques. In addition, the stapler of the present invention is reusable.